Digvijaya Singh gets bail in defamation case related to comment on RSS

A court here on Saturday granted bail to senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh in a defamation case over his claim that people associated with the RSS were receiving money from Pakistan.

The district and sessions court granted him bail on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 after he appeared before it. Speaking to reporters later, Singh claimed that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was not a registered organization, hence it could not be defamed.

Speaking at a press conference in Bhind in 2019, Singh had allegedly claimed that some people associated with the RSS were receiving money from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani spy agency.

Avdhesh Singh Bhadoria, a lawyer, filed the defamation case against Singh after coming across the statement. The Congress leader had made the statement while referring to an alleged espionage racket that had been busted in Madhya Pradesh two years earlier.

After a magistrate's court dismissed Bhadoria's defamation complaint against Singh, he moved the sessions court and the latter issued a bailable warrant against the Congress leader. The case could not be heard earlier due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the lawyer said.

The next hearing will be held on November 22, he added.